After 11 Years, Streamwood Man Faces Charges

A Streamwood area businessman who has spent 11 years as a fugitive from charges of murder and assaulting a Los Angeles police officer has agreed to return to the West Coast to face the charges.

The suspect, Donald R. Womack, 37, of Streamwood, was arrested by FBI agents last week when he went to meet a friend in a Chicago restaurant.

He agreed in court Thursday to waive extradition and return to Los Angeles, where he is charged with fatally shooting a business associate and running down a Los Angeles policeman with his car on Nov. 14, 1975.

Womack`s activities during the last decade had been a mystery to authorities, until FBI officials received a tip last Wednesday night, FBI agent Jon Housley said.

``We set up a little trap and got him,`` an investigator said.

Womack`s court-appointed attorney disclosed at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Bernard Weisberg that for 10 years Womack has lived in the Streamwood area, where he has established himself in the drywall business. He has been married and divorced, and has a 9-year-old daughter, said the attorney, Marshall Weinberg.

Womack is ``willing to return to California and fight the charges,``

Weinberg said.

After Thursday`s court hearing, Chicago police took Womack into custody, until Los Angeles law enforcement officials arranged to take him back to California.

Womack, whose name was on the Los Angeles Police Department`s ``10 most wanted`` list, had been sought on a federal warrant charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

According to Los Angeles authorities, Womack was involved in a dispute with a business associate from Wilmington, Calif. The associate subsequently was shot in the chest with a .25 handgun, and the police officer reportedly was run down by a car as the gunman fled the slaying scene.

The FBI entered the case in April, 1985, at the request of California authorities, said Edward Hegarty, chief of the FBI`s Chicago bureau.